Lawyer Joe Bruno suspended from practicing in state courts

By Laura MaggiStaff writer
The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday barred New Orleans lawyer Joe Bruno from practicing in state courts for 18 months.

Joe Bruno

The suspension is not expected to impact the high-profile federal lawsuits the trial attorney has filed for the levee failures that led to widespread flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

Yvonne Hughes

In a separate action on Friday, the Louisiana Supreme Court completely disbarred former Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Yvonne Hughes, who was ordered off the bench in April 2004. The Supreme Court said in its three-page decision that the "seriousness and pervasiveness of respondent's misconduct in all aspects of her legal career readily demonstrates that she is not fit to maintain her license to practice law."

When the court removed Hughes from the bench, the justices noted that she had released from jail almost 900 adults arrested for municipal and traffic violations, sometimes held court by phone and allowed convicted felons to work in her courtroom around juveniles.

Bruno was penalized by the state's highest court for actions he took 16 years ago during a federal lawsuit over the 1988 explosion at Shell Oil Co.'s Norco refinery. The judges of the U.S. District Court in New Orleans suspended Bruno from practicing in federal court for a year in 1999 for the same conduct. He was reinstated in April 2000.

At issue are two missteps that the Louisiana Supreme Court found violated the rules of professional conduct lawyers are required to follow: the fact that Bruno paid a potential witness in the Shell case $5,000, then and failed to correct another lawyer when he told a federal judge that the payment had not been made.

"Respondent's payment to a witness and lack of candor towards a federal judge violated the integrity of the judicial system and undermined the proper administration of justice, causing a potentially adverse effect on the legal proceeding," the Louisiana Supreme Court wrote in a decision, which does not specify which justice wrote it. Justice Jeffrey Victory noted in a dissent that he would have imposed a heftier penalty.

The court rejected a recommendation by the majority of the nine-member board of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which called for Bruno's complete disbarment. Instead, the Supreme Court suspended Bruno from practicing law in state courts for three years, then deferred 18 months of that penalty. In handing down the decision, the court noted that Bruno had no other infractions in his 30 years practicing law, had a good reputation among lawyers and "expressed genuine remorse."

Dane Ciolino, the Loyola Law professor who represented Bruno, said the Supreme Court's actions will not impact the "vast majority" of Bruno's practice, which is in federal court.

Bruno has been involved in a number of the high-profile class action lawsuits filed in Louisiana in recent years. But he is best known now for the federal lawsuits he filed as part of a larger group of attorneys seeking compensation for homeowners from the Army Corps of Engineers and insurance companies for the floodwaters that destroyed property in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish after the storm.